Katy managed to make 34 more tins of soft wax this week. It’s available in her etsy store via this link. She’s hard at work on another batch during the times when she isn’t signing rhymes about Black Phillip from “The VVitch.”
— Christopher Schwarz
Author: Lost Art Press
Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.
Mortises Before Turning – Genius
Apologies for the following statement, but “The Woodworker: The Charles Hayward Years” is a gold mine of craft knowledge. Even though we were mired in the project for more than seven years (and I should despise it), the finished books are incredibly useful in my everyday work.
Yesterday proved that point. You might remember this blog entry where I reprinted a 1964 article on making a staked stool that was one of the thousands of articles we sorted through for our two-volume set.
In that article, S.H. Glenister recommended boring mortises for a staked stool before shaping the legs. This is exactly how I work with square mortise-and-tenon projects, but is the opposite of how I work when building post-and-rung assemblies with round tenons and mortises.
I can’t say why it never occurred to me to bore the round mortises first when the stock was square. Just a brain defect, I guess.
So when making the post-and-rung base for a new design for a chest of drawers, I followed Mr. Glenister’s advice. It worked brilliantly and everything turned out perfectly square and centered with little fuss.
The only hiccup was when turning the mortised bits. You need to lighten up your pressure on the tool as you pass the tool by the mortises. I didn’t have any of them catch, but if you use consistent pressure the areas around your mortises will end up a little skinnier.
Give it a try next time.
By the way, we are hard at work at designing the next two volumes of “The Woodworker.” Vol. III on joinery is now completely designed and needs only a final edit. Meghan, the designer, is now laying out Vol. IV, which is on the workshop and furniture. There is still a lot of work ahead, but we are plowing forward.
— Christopher Schwarz
About the New Lost Art Press Logo
When John and I started this company in 2007, we each contributed about $1,500 to build our website and purchase the first press run of “The Art of Joinery.”
So when it came to designing a logo, we had exactly $0.00. I ginned up a placeholder logo using the Caslon Antique typeface and we launched our business with that. But as soon as we made some money, we planned to get a real professional logo.
During the last nine years we tried a couple times to get a logo designed, but the project was cursed (like our poster business). Both designers either flaked or were swallowed by a hole in the Earth. So we trudged on with our DIY logo.
This spring we vowed to make a third attempt. I hired Tom Lane, a designer in Liverpool, who I’d been following on Dribble for some time. He specializes in hand-drawn logos, and his aesthetic matched what I was looking for.
The curse had finally been lifted (thanks Marta Madden).
Tom drew a bunch of logos in pencil. He narrowed it down to three solid choices and we began refining things during the last two weeks. And today, it’s done.
I’ve been in the publishing business long enough to know that some of you (all of you?) might prefer the old logo. That’s cool, but this is our logo. We’re happy we got to support an independent designer, promote some handwork and get the logo that I wish we’d had in 2007.
— Christopher Schwarz
Lost Art Press Storefront Open This Saturday
The Lost Art Press storefront will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, June 11, for those of you who have woodworking questions or would like to browse our complete selection of new books or our limited selection of blemished books.
We’ll also have free stickers, free posters and (I hope) some of Katy’s soft wax for sale at the store.
I’ll be working on a contemporary chest of drawers in some highly figured oak that has some unusual joinery and will be featured in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. With any luck I’ll be finishing the plinth, which is constructed like a post-and-rung chair.
Just a reminder that we can accept credit cards for all our books except the blemished ones, which are cash only. The store’s physical address is 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41017.
— Christopher Schwarz
Tools in ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest:’ Part 4, Chisels & Striking Tools
When I was a beginning woodworker, I tended to buy sets of tools – sets of carving tools, router bits, clamps, you name it. If you bought a set I usually got a bit of a discount and I got the false impression that I was “done” with carving tools once I bought the “set.”
You know where this is going. Sets (except for sets of drill bits) are for suckers.
My first set of chisels were the Marples Blue Chip chisels. I bought the starter set and saved my money to buy every single size the company offered. After a few years of daily use, I realized that I used only three chisels frequently (1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″) and one chisel (1-1/4″) infrequently. All the others collected dust instead of making it. But all that dang blue plastic made me feel like I knew what I was doing.
Bench Chisels
I am certain that some people need lots and lots of chisels – bevel-edge, firmer and etc.. I am not that person. I would rather have a few perfectly tuned tools than 24 in various stages of dull.
So the three bench chisels I have are Lie-Nielsen A2 socket chisels. They fit my hands perfectly. They have wooden handles. They are lightweight. They are balanced. Everything else is fairly irrelevant in my book. My wide chisel is a Blue Spruce Toolworks 1-1/4″ chisel. Before I had the Blue Spruce I had a Buck Bros. chisel that was too soft for woodworking, which was why it probably was a survivor. Most Buck chisels are outstanding and get used to nothingness.
Other Chisels
For mortise chisels, I still have my Ray Iles mortisers. But I have only the 1/4″ and the 5/16″ sizes.The rest I’ve given away to other woodworkers. Those two sizes handle about 100 percent of my hand mortising needs. (Side note: I had a dalliance with the Narex mortisers that did not end well. They were astonishingly soft.) I have a fishtail chisel for half-blind dovetails from Blue Spruce Toolworks. It’s a luxury, but one that I appreciate when making drawers and rabbeted full-blind dovetails for casework.
I thought this blog entry would be longer. After all, we’re talking about chisels. Shouldn’t I have a long list? Apparently not. Let’s talk about striking tools.
Mallets & Hammers
I still have my same Blue Spruce 16-ounce resin-impregnated round mallet I’ve had for years. Its head still has only minor marking on it, which is unbelievable. That mallet is an extension of my hand and I cannot imagine replacing it.
I also have a 2-1/4 lb. lump hammer (also called an engineer’s hammer) that I use for mortising, assembly, disassembly, feline discipline and setting holdfasts. You can buy these on eBay or at hardware stores for a pittance. Old ones seem to bounce around a lot less than the new ones. After saying my vows to the lump hammer I got rid of my square-headed wooden mallets, which freed up a lot of space in the chest.
For driving nails, I have two claw hammers: a vintage 16 oz. hammer with an octagonal handle and an 8 oz. hammer with a roundish handle. The big hammer drives nails. The little one drives brads and pins, and it adjusts my plane irons (sometimes in tandem with my round wooden mallet).
Hammers are as personal as knives or things you put in your nether regions. So brand names aren’t going to help you. I say you should handle a lot of hammers; unlike when choosing a mate you are unlikely to catch any diseases. Once you settle on a hammer, switching to another one will result in serious consequences, especially when it comes to your hammerschlager skills.
Other striking tools in my chest include some nail sets (also called “nail punches”), a dowel plate for skinning dowels and drawbore pegs and my shopmark from Infinity Stamps.
— Christopher Schwarz
Part 1 of this series on handplanes can be found here.
Part 2 on saws is here.
Part 2-1/2 on frame saws is here.
Part 3 on marking and measuring is here.